Snowman..........with all due respect, that's a bit over-simplistic. Example? - rallying, or sprints, against the clock. (I believe it's the SCCA championship in the US), but we know the event type as "WRC". Not uncommon to have fractional-second differences over 10/20/30 stage miles.

You couldn't say someone in that sphere wasn't 'racing', or to be more accurate, that their engine would be any less stretched by that activity than being on a circuit as per your description.

"Track days", on the other hand, at least the connotation here is, owner/drivers in street cars getting the opportunity to use a real circuit. Fear, insurance and mechanical calamity all usually conspire to restrain you ever-so-slightly, so that circumstance, I'd agree, is less onerous than 'pure' bona-fide racing.........